1839 Incoming Express
Image of a birchbark canoe on a Canadian River, from Glenbow Archive, image na-843-14, used with their permission
I know of two people who travelled into the territory west of the Rocky Mountains in the incoming 1839 York Factory Express (now called the Columbia Express.) One man was Chief Factor John McLoughlin, who was, of course, the man in charge of the Express. The second was Roderick Finlayson, who worked at Fort Vancouver for a short time before he was sent up to the Northwest coast. In the end, Finlayson managed Fort Victoria until his retirement many years after the formation of the post.
Roderick Finlayson was the son of a sheep farmer who lived in the Western Highlands of Scotland; a man whose family suffered financially from the after-effects of the War of 1815. Roderick attended a Parochial school and at the age of 16 left home to “make his own way in the world,” as he says in his “History of Vancouver Island.”
In 1837, Finlayson sailed across the Atlantic, landing in New York in September, and meeting an uncle who got him a position in the Hudson’s Bay Company as apprentice clerk in Montreal. He stayed at Lachine (the Montreal headquarters of the HBC) for a few months, and then was sent up the Ottawa River to Fort William — not Thunder Bay’s Fort William, but another post somewhere near Fort Coulonge, on the Ottawa River. Finlayson says the fort was at what is now Pontiac, Quebec, and in his writing he also seems to call Fort William “Coulonge.” However, I think Fort William is a small outpost of Coulonge.
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In 1839, Roderick Finlayson was ordered to join a party that was to take possession of the trading territory then leased by the Russian American Company, now the Alaska Panhandle. The HBC had always wanted to set up a post on the Stikine River, and now as the result of a settlement between Russia and Great Britain, they leased part of the Russian Territory on the northwest coast from the Russian-American Company. According to his “History of Vancouver’s Island,” Roderick Finlayson left Fort William and travelled up the Ottawa River in birch bark canoes manned by French Canadians and Iroquois. His travelling companions would likely be members of the group of men I call the Fort Victoria murderers, HBC employees who conspired to murder their supervisor, John McLoughlin Jr., at Fort Stikine in 1842. So that who is travelling in this incoming Express. If you want to know more about the Fort Victoria murderers, go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fort-victoria-murderers/
In his “Autobiography,” Roderick Finlayson says:
In the spring of 1839 I was directed by the Governor [Simpson] to hold myself in readiness at four hours notice to join a brigade of four large bark canoes on the way up from Lachine, the head office, with officers and men appointed to proceed to the Columbia district on the west of the Rocky Mountains, in order to take possession of part of the Russian territory on the North Pacific for trade purposes, that was leased from the Russian American fur company, by the Hudson’s Bay Company in London.
I then had to leave Fort William with much regret, to a successor appointed, and joined the party for the West. We proceeded up the Ottawa with four large Birch bark canoes, the party consisting of forty men and officers, to the Lake Nipissing, thence down the French River to Lake Huron, up Lake Huron to Lake Superior, along the north shore of which we paddled our way to what is now Port Arthur [a suburb of Thunder Bay], changed our canoes here for smaller ones and pursued our way up the Kaministiquia River to the height of land, where the canoes and luggage had to be carried by the men until we reached the water leading into the Lake of the Woods, paddled our canoes though the lake to the River [Winnipeg River] that falls into Lake Winnipeg, paddled along the North shore of Lake Winnipeg to Norway House, another station of the company’s on the north shore of the lake where we remained about a week.
All this is one sentence! Continuing with his “Autobiography,” at Norway House…
There we met a large number of officers and men from the Interior, with their annual collection of furs, bound for York Factory, there to deliver their furs and receive their annual outfits for the next year. From Norway House we continued our way down the river (Nelson [and Hayes]) which leads to York Factory on Hudson Bay, the head depot there, which we reached in due time, and where we remained about a fortnight, replenishing our stock of provisions, etc., for the westward journey. Here I had a first view of the sea since leaving New York.
In his “History of Vancouver Island,” he says they “remained at York Factory for about six weeks getting the party equipped and prepared to cross the continent to the Columbia River. The party left York Factory in July 1839, ascended the Nelson [Hayes] River in a fleet of canoes to Norway House, there exchanged canoes for large boats [York Boats] on which we crossed Lake Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan River…” It’s interesting that the Saskatchewan brigades didn’t take the York Boats down the Hayes River to York Factory in 1839.
Both documents I am taking this information from are secondary documents, and like all secondary documents they are not entirely reliable. His “Autobiography” was written in 1891, fifty years after the fact. I don’t have a date for his “History of Vancouver Island,” but it was written sometime after the Fraser River gold rush took place in 1858-1859. It’s highly likely his “History of Vancouver Island” was written at the time that the historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, was at Victoria, which would make it 1878. His “History” seems to be more accurate than his “Autobiography.”
So, to begin the journey to the west from York Factory, from Finlayson’s “Autobiography.”
Having received our equipment for the western journey at this place we parted with our friends at the Factory and left under the command of Dr. John McLoughlin, the then Chief Factor in charge of the Columbia District, with many hearty cheers from our friends at the Factory, and proceeded up the river to Norway House again. Here we exchanged our canoes for Batteaux for navigating Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River. From Norway House we coasted along the northwest end of the lake to the mouth of the Saskatchewan River, up which we proceeded, calling at the stations of Fort Carlton [Carlton House], Fort Pitt, and Edmonton on the [North] Saskatchewan river.
In his “History of Vancouver Island,” he wrote that “The Saskatchewan River runs thro’ a beautiful country, where the Blackfoot Indians and other wild tribes in these days used to range about on horseback in search of buffalo. These tribes being warlike and well-armed and ready to plunder any party passing thro’ the country, we had to keep watch night and day, all around, ready to defend ourselves. When passing up the [North] Saskatchewan, we saw a large herd of Buffalo, running along in file, estimated to be about 500, running toward the river following the leader. They struck the river at the point where our boats were passing, and regardless of our boats the leader plunged into the river, followed by the others, not stopping for an instant, when all hands used their oars when we succeeded in killing six out of the herd; the rest crossed and disappeared on the other side.” More from his “History of Vancouver Island,”
The names of the intermediate station[s] we passed are Forts Carlton, Pitt, & Edmonton, at the latter which was then the headquarters of the district. We remained to further organize when we left the boats and took horses with which we crossed the plain country to Fort Assiniboine on the Athabasca River, when [which] we ascended in bark canoes, till we reached Jasper’s House, a station at the headwaters of the river, where we again changed our canoes for horses and rode over the Rocky Mountains to a place called the Boat Encampment, on the Upper Columbia River.
I find it quite interesting that although in 1835, Douglas arranged that the HBC men use boats on the Athabasca River, that often there are only canoes available, or that the men seemed to chose to use canoes over boats. Over the years the men complained about the Ahabasca River boats, and it was only in 1848 that Thomas Lowe told Governor Simpson that the boats they used on the Athabasca River were ‘as good as could be expected.’ To continue:
In a letter written to Governor Simpson on March 20, 1841, McLoughlin wrote of his experience in crossing the mountains in 1839, and in his descent of the Columbia. “I think you ought not to attempt to come down at that season [August], as it is too dangerous, and I even doubt if it will be possible to cross the Rocky Mountains. When I came in in 1839, though it was only a few days earlier than usual [September], we had difficulty to cross the creeks in several places, and we had to cross our people on horseback at the creek at the foot of the Grand Cote, where one of our men falling off his horse was nigh drowned, and in coming down the River, it was with the utmost difficulty our people in several places could prevent the Boats whirling round in the whirlpools.”
You will have noticed that John McLoughlin got his boats from York Factory to Boat Encampment in record time! He was in a hurry to get home, it seems. Finlayson’s story as told in his “Autobiography” differs from McLoughlin’s, however. Finlayson omitted the information about the violence of the river, perhaps because he had no experience with the Columbia, and did not realize that the river was not usually so violent. Finlayson’s story continues. In his “Autobiography,” he says, briefly:
From this place [Jasper’s House] we again took horses and crossed the Rocky Mountains to the head waters of the Columbia River where we found bateaux again waiting for us, and passed down the Columbia River, calling at Fort Colvile, Okanagan, Walla Walla, stations belonging to the company, and reached Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, the head station of the company in the Columbia District which we reached about the middle of November, being six months since I left Fort William on the Ottawa.
But John McLoughlin got home in early October. How was it that Finlayson’s boats were so far behind?
Here’s the answer: In his “History of Vancouver Island,” Roderick Finlayson has a different story, and I think this is the correct version of his journey down the Columbia River — partly because we have the date that John McLoughlin arrived at Fort Vancouver, and it is October 3, 1839. Also, I think Finlayson’s “History” was written well before his “Autobiography,” and so is more accurate than his later writing. Here goes:
At that time [at Boat Encampment] we met a party from the Fort at Colvile with boats suitable for navigation on the Columbia, sent there in accordance with a previous arrangement. Sent the horse brigade back to Jasper’s House and proceeded down the Columbia River to Colvile or Kettle Falls, as it was then called; remained a few days at Colvile and continued our journey in the same boats, stopping at all the stations then on the Columbia, viz. Okanagan, Spokan [well, maybe they stopped at the mouth of the Spokane River], Walla Walla, until we reached the Dalles, where we lightened the boats; carried our baggage across the portage, and ran the boats to get down the river there, as it was dangerous to risk the property in the boats while they were run down the rapid and contracted stream. After the Dalles were passed, we came to the Cascades, when the same process was gone through; having passed the Cascades the river widens out, runs smooth. And now all hands were preparing to arrive at the great depot Vancouver, then on the Columbia. In order to make a fine display in arriving at the Vancouver landing, we hoisted flags. Men and officers dressed in their best, ranged the boats in proper order, that of the commanding officer ahead, and others following; the men, Canadian and Iroquois voyageurs, singing lustily their Canadian boat songs. On hearing the singing and the noise of the oars, the party at the Fort turned out, headed by the chief, a venerable looking old gentleman whose long gray locks hung over his shoulders in the fashion of the day.
This was John McLoughlin, who had travelled west in the same Express, but who had gone ahead of the rest of the boats. It is clear that young Roderick Finlayson did not share the same campfire nor the same boat with McLoughlin, although he certainly knew that John McLoughlin was leading the Express.
Anyway, Finlayson’s “History” continues:
This was the celebrated Dr. McLoughlin, who commanded over all the country west of the Rocky Mountains and was called the Emperor of the West. His second-in-command then was Mr. [James] Douglas, afterward Sir James. We were all hospitably received at the fort. In order the celebrate our arrival, we had a grand banquet given us, where all the delicacies of the West Country were brought out in profusion. The month of October, the 7th I believe, was the date of our arrival at Vancouver. There we remained all winter, busily employed making out our accounts and preparing for a journey to our destination, the Northwest Coast, the following spring.
Well, thinking about which other gentlemen might have crossed the continent in 1839, I find that John McLoughlin Jr. joined his father on this expedition across the country, and I also find that he was a trained doctor — something I didn’t know or that I had forgotten. In 1838 he crossed the mountains with his father, going out of the district, and returning to Fort Vancouver once again, where he served as medical doctor. In 1839 he also accompanied the outgoing York Factory Express, meeting his father (who was returning from London) at York Factory and returning to Fort Vancouver with him. So, it appears, John McLoughlin Jr. was on this 1839 incoming Express. William Glen Rae, who took over the charge of Fort Stikine, was clerking at Fort Vancouver at the time this express came in: he wasn’t in this Express.
So there we are: we do have a record of the incoming 1839 York Factory Express. Although casually written years after the Express travelled into the country, its a good record that gives us a lot of information on the happenings during this journey across the continent. And of course, It has some details of McLoughlin’s incoming journey, and how his experience, and the letter that McLoughlin wrote to Governor Simpson, began this last thread we have been following: that is, Governor Simpson’s journey from Red River to Fort Vancouver in 1841.
Now that we’ve figured that out, if you want to go back to the beginning, it’s here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpsons-rough-notes/
When the next section of Simpson’s journal is published, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpson-to-fort-nisqually/
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.
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